Under Control: What are you holding back? | Romans 12 | Jarryd Cole

All right, all right.

You guys can go ahead and take your seats.

Take a seat.

Hey, good evening, salt company.

My name is Jared.

If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, I get to uh serve here at Ambassador Church as the lead pastor here, and it's always grateful.

I'm always grateful to get a chance to be here with you guys tonight.

Um, but hey, I want to double tap really quick on what uh Mac was talking about in announcements, okay?

Uh global trips, man.

Uh, if you're not considering global trips, I just want to present to you maybe you should consider global trips a really exciting opportunity.

Um, I had a chance to be out of the country for a really long time in my life, from like most of my formational years, from I think 21 to when I was 28.

I lived outside of the country, okay?

Um, and I was in a particular place, and that's France.

I was in France for like seven years.

It was amazing.

And so part of our partnership with France and sending you guys out there is like a way for you guys to like, like it's near and dear to my heart, but it's a place where like my wife and I even tilled a little bit of soil to prepare even for this, like in a real God-ordained way.

I think like back what God was doing back then was something he was preparing for now.

And I'm looking forward to the fruit that's gonna be raped from uh the work that we did back then and the stuff that you get to enter into as you say yes to going to check out France.

Okay, so uh don't blow that off if you're at all considering, if you're on the fence, uh keep checking it out, man.

Have conversations, talk to Mac, we'd love to have you have that experience, all right?

Well, if you have your Bibles, you can go ahead and get those out with me.

We're gonna be in the book of Romans, it's in your New Testament.

If you're not familiar, uh it goes Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, and then Romans.

It's six books in to your New Testament.

We're gonna be in Romans chapter 12.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

And as you're turning there, I kind of want to just catch you up on where we've been in the last couple of weeks.

You guys have been in a new series called Under Control.

And in week one, Micah kind of talked about uh our desire.

And what he was doing was answering this question uh what are you living for?

Okay, what are you living for?

What kind of desires well up in your heart?

What are the things that you're saying?

Man, this is the stuff that I'm gonna live my life for.

And in week two, he talked about our thoughts.

Answering this question, what are you thinking about?

What's taking up most of the time?

Are you a person that worries?

Are you a person that like has anxiety, all kinds of stuff?

Like you can cast your cares on God.

There's things that God wants to do with your thoughts.

And tonight, what we're doing is talking about souls, all right?

Desire to thoughts to souls.

They all have a question.

And here's the question I'm gonna be tackling tonight, and it's this one right here.

Uh, what are you holding back?

We talk about our souls, the question is, what are you holding back?

Which I think is a great question for this particular topic, because depending on the situation, our desire to hold back can be different.

Like some things we really want to hold back on, but then there's some things in our life that we really don't.

For example, for me, uh, I love Wing Stop.

Okay, any Wingstop fans in the room?

Actually, okay, let's be honest.

I just like wings, okay?

Wing stop, any kind of wings, period.

I'm in.

By the way, uh, there's a phenomenal restaurant, literally a 10-minute walk from the building called a hooligans, who has phenomenal wings, by the way.

So if you're a winged person, make your way down there and have a really good time.

But, anyways, when it comes to wings, like I don't hold back at all, okay?

I lean after the ask Mike, ask Mac.

We were just there the other day.

I lean in all in when it comes to wings.

I like my wings battered, like I like them fried, I like them grilled, I like them dipped, not dipped, like it doesn't really matter.

Any type of way I can get wings, I'm gonna get them.

But here's one caveat.

I don't like boneless wings because those aren't wings at all, by the way, okay?

You can we can they're chicken nuggets, bro.

They're chicken nuggets.

They're not even wings, okay?

They've gotta be bone in.

I like the buzz in the room, okay.

We all like chicken, that's amazing.

Good job.

But it doesn't take me long to go all in on wings.

And some of you like you're checking out already, you're like, I don't really get down with chicken like that, especially the bone-in kind.

Okay, maybe that's fine.

That's fine.

But there's maybe something in your life that's like that for you.

Like maybe you lean in when it comes to a good shopping deal, right?

You just lured in, your email buzzes, and what comes across is like these big red signs with the sale and all the negative percentage marks, and you just love a good deal.

Anytime that comes across, you're just like, I lean in heavily on that.

Like there might not be a deal that comes across your face that you're just like, I'm I'm passing that up.

Nope, I'm leaning right in.

This might be you.

Or maybe you're a person that likes the gym.

You lean in at the gym.

Like some of you, you'll miss a lot of things, but one of the things you're not gonna miss is an opportunity for them gains, okay?

Like you're gonna go get them gains.

Like, like this is just what's true of you.

Or maybe you hoop, right?

Maybe you're gonna go get a good hoop session, and like you just anytime somebody's talking about ball, you're like, yo, sign me up.

I'm right there.

Like this can kind of be the way that we are, right?

You lean in, and it's hard for you to hold back on some of these things.

And then for honest, all of us have something that's kind of like that.

Maybe it's whatever popular concert tickets that's hitting the market right now, it's an invitation to a night out, maybe it's a guy's trip you guys have been planning, or a girl's trip that you've been planning.

Like anything to get that quick dopamine hate, you might be one that raises your hand, but yeah, I'm all in on something like that.

But here's a question: what about the things that cost us something?

Like, what about when the cost is something that we're not willing to pay?

Are we in on those kind of things?

I would say not so for me.

Like when something will cost us whatever it is, too much money, too much comfort, too much of our reputation, or they infringe on our cherished views of whatever things in the world, whatever it might be, or anything like that, like we're less likely to engage then.

And instead of leaning in, it's actually easy to hold back.

And I know what I'm saying isn't a surprise to anyone, this is just what's true.

This is a natural response when something isn't desirable to you or when it feels like it won't benefit you.

And here's where I'm going with this.

Because there are some things in our lives that the cost is just simply too high for.

And my concern, especially in our day, 21st century America, here in 2026, that many of us think our Christian walk is just too high of a cost.

And instead of leaning in, what we want to do is hold back.

And whatever hold back looks like for you, instead of prioritizing your Bible reading, you let it slide off and you put it off and off and off.

Instead of praying and tapping into the communication that you have with God, the access you have to your heavenly father, you hold back on that.

Instead of prioritizing gospel community, maybe I might have had enough of that.

I've done it for the last couple of weeks, all that kind of stuff.

I kind of need a break.

I'm not gonna go in, right?

You kind of hold back on those kind of things.

In our text today in Romans 12, 1 through 2, this is actually what the apostle Paul is going to be talking about.

What it means to truly lean in and not hold back, listen to this, from our worship.

What it means to lean in, not hold back from having a transformed soul.

When we're talking about our soul and holding back, what are you holding back?

For many of us, we can raise our hand and be like, Man, I think it might be the thing I'm holding nearest to me, the thing that makes me who I am, to my inner core, my my my deepest desires, who I want to be, who I long to be, the vision I have for myself.

That's something that I'm holding on to, and it's hard for me to let it go.

I hold it back when it comes to my soul.

I don't lean in.

Okay, and my hope tonight is to let you know that we should be people who lean in with this very thing that God's given us.

You are not your own.

If you're a Christian in the room, you were bought with a price.

And the hope is that you lean in with your soul, not hold back with your soul.

So if you're a need to know person, here's where we're going for the rest of the night.

I'm gonna read us our text, we'll unpack it, uh, we'll get to the end, and hopefully you walk away with something practical by the end.

You guys ready for that?

If you're in the Bible, Romans 12, verse 1, here's what it says.

Romans 12:1

It says, Therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true worship.

Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Why?

So that you may discern what is the good, what is the pleasing, and what is the perfect will of God.

Let's look back at verse one.

Paul begins, hey, therefore, brothers and sisters, in view of the mercies of God, he does, I urge you to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God.

This is your true worship.

Like I love what Paul begins to say right here in this text, and I love how my boy Micah tends to say this.

Anytime your text says, Hey, therefore, what do you have to do?

You have to ask what the therefore is.

Thank you.

So, what is the therefore there for?

And most times in the text, you can literally go back a handful of verses and be like, oh, this is what the therefore is there for.

But right here in this juncture in Romans chapter 12, what Paul is talking about isn't just a couple verses back in chapter 11, but he's literally talking about all the stuff he's been writing so far from chapters 1 through chapters 11 until it gets right here.

Romans 12 · chapter mention

What we need to know about what Paul is talking about is he's talking about these mercies of God.

You guys see this?

He's saying, Hey, therefore, brothers and sisters, you Christians, in view of the mercies of God, what are these mercies of God?

The mercies of God is all the things that you know and love that comes true from the gospel.

The fact that Jesus Christ lived the life that you couldn't live, died the death that you should have died, rise from the rose from the grave, and because of that, he made a way possible for you to now become a new person, a transformed person, the Holy Spirit now in dwelling with you, and not only that, but that those so you can come into contact with his family.

That what you get now is going from being far off, cast out, without any hope in the world, far away from God, and now because of what Jesus has done in the blood of Jesus Christ, you now have the ability to be brought near because of these mercies of God.

And in this text, that would have been super important because you got to understand a little bit about the Jew-Gentile connection.

Okay?

There would have been an in-crowd and an out crowd that Paul would have been addressing in this letter.

And the in-crowd would have been thinking, like, hey, we're the people that are in, we are the Jews, we are the chosen people of God, we're the ones who are rightfully in, and we get to benefit from all things that God has done.

But what Paul is writing this letter is saying is that even people who aren't like you, even people who live a different kind of life, even the people that you would call sinners, the people that you think God wouldn't even bat an eye out.

He says, even they.

And so company, dare I say, even you, dare I say, even me, because of these great mercies of God, now we have an end as well.

The mercies of God, like you being a part of God's family, has always been about the mercy of God that extends an invitation to be at his table to people who all believe in his son.

And so he says, Hey, I urge you now, because of this reality, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice.

Anybody read the word sacrifice in your Bible and you think, like, I hope you ain't talking to me when he's talking about sacrifice.

Like sometimes I can be like, um, I'm like, God, I got can I just search the text and be like, I hope you ain't talking to me when you're talking about that crazy stuff?

Because what does this mean?

Right, maybe you've been around the church for a while and you're thinking, like, hey, Jesus sacrificed himself.

What do you like?

This is this is this referring to me.

Do I have to sacrifice too?

Like, hold up.

And the answer is yes, he did.

Jesus Christ died on the cross, it is finished, it is done.

But here's what we need to know about sacrifice, okay?

There's two types of sacrifice in the Bible.

One, there's an atoning sacrifice.

Somebody say atoning.

Atoning.

But then there's also an answering sacrifice.

Jesus' sacrifice was an atoning sacrifice.

Meaning what?

Jesus' sacrifice was the one and only sacrifice that needed to be done.

Why?

In order to make you right before the eyes of God.

It was in your place, it was an atoning sacrifice.

Like what Jesus did on the cross was pay in total the cost of our sin, the cost of our guilt, and the cost of our shame.

And so this means that whatever we do, we do not have to pay the penalty for our sin.

Jesus has already done that.

But our sacrifice is an answering sacrifice.

Like what we do now, because of what Paul calls the great mercies of God, now what we do is a response to what Jesus has done.

And here's what you need to know: that it's not to earn anything or atone for anything, but we recognize this that our lives are a living sacrifice, is the right answer to Jesus' death as the final sacrifice for our sin.

We live among that reality.

I love how the writer of Hebrews says it in Hebrews chapter 13, verses 12 through 16.

Hebrews 13:12–16

I'm gonna read this to you really quick.

Here's what it says here.

It says, Therefore, another, therefore, therefore, Jesus also suffered outside the gate, so that he might sanctify the people by his own blood.

So let us then go to him outside the camp, bearing his disgrace.

For we do not have an enduring city here.

Instead, we seek the one to come.

And therefore, through him, let us continually offer up to God, hear this, a sacrifice, a sacrifice, a sacrifice of praise.

That is the fruit of lips that confess his name, Jesus.

Don't neglect to do what is good and to share, for God is pleased with such sacrifices.

Do you hear this in the text?

We get the atoning sacrifice of Jesus, and we get the answering sacrifice of those who believe in Jesus.

We go to him outside of the gate.

Why?

Not to atone for our sin, but to answer the call to sacrifice because he has sacrificed everything for us.

And Paul goes on to say, or why is this important?

Because Paul goes on to say that your presenting of your body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, is this.

Look at your text.

It is true worship.

He says, This is your true worship.

You guys ever wonder what worship is?

You guys know what worship is.

And oftentimes when we're in a Christian space, what we can think is worship is when we come to a place like this.

We open the church doors, we come and sit in the pews, we have our little get-together and hangout and chit-chat time, and then the little countdown starts and the bomb music starts playing.

It used to be, I don't know, what do we play on that, Mac?

Swag surf.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Y'all switch it up on me tonight.

But you play the music and then you come and sit down, and then the music starts.

And what we tend to think is like, oh, now it's time to worship.

This is worship.

Among my peers, in the church building, in the pews, when the music starts, this is worship.

You know, the Bible taints a much larger picture of worship than that.

I'm not here to tell you that that's not worship.

What I am here to tell you that holistic is way more holistic than that.

Worship is your whole life.

Paul says that presenting your body as a living and holy sacrifice, pleading to God, he says, This is your true worship.

What does this mean?

It means that worship is not the only time that you spend 15 minutes out of your week singing a handful of songs, but worship is what you're doing from Wednesday till Monday.

The rest of the week.

How are you living your life?

Worship is what much more holistic.

Here's why.

It's because God wants for your life what he wants for your life is not for you to be someone who just comes to someplace to look the part.

He doesn't want you to be someone who just adds a little bit of discipline to your life and calls it sanctification, or to be here on a Tuesday night, raise your hands for a couple songs.

Like none of these things are bad things, but we need to know that God is not simply in the business of seeing you simply behave a little bit better than you used to, or to carve out a couple minutes here and there to sing a couple songs for worship.

No, he's concerned with you becoming someone who was being transformed from the inside out.

This is your true worship.

Christianity isn't about you coming pretending and looking like you have your life together, like you play the part, but it's about submitting to God and letting him get your life together for you.

And that's not proven because you come and walk into the church doors.

That's proven with your life outside of the church doors.

Christianity is about the soul-level surgery where you allow the love of God to reach to the depths of you and begin to do the soul-level work that you can't do on your own.

It's allowing Jesus to come in, the Holy Spirit to do the work.

A person that presents their bodies, a living sacrifice, doesn't force themselves into submission, but they offer themselves in submission willingly to say, God, would you have your way?

Would you do with me what you will?

Are you a person in the room who desires to worship like that?

Or are you holding that back from the holy God of the universe?

Look at verse 2.

Paul is going to give instruction on how verse 1 can begin to be a reality in our lives.

I hope you're asking this question.

He says, Do not be conformed to this age.

You want to present your bodies as a living sacrifice to a holy God?

Don't be conformed to the things of this life, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Underline that.

If you have your own Bibles, not our few Bibles, amen.

So that you may discern what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

He's saying, Hey, if we want to be people who don't hoard our soul, hold it back, the people who lean in and give it up, if we want soul level change in our lives, he says, Hey, we need to be people who don't hold back and lean into the Krishna walk.

And Paul says, Don't be conformed to this age, but be renewed or transformed by the renewing of your mind.

Meaning that there is a way that the world works, hear me, Christian, that you as a Christian should be peeling away from.

How many of you know this?

But there's some things in the world that the world will say, Hey, this is okay, that God will say is absolutely not okay.

And what it means to be renewed in your minds is that our minds begin to become more aligned with God's ways and his words and his will more than they are with our ways, our words, and our will, and the ways of the world.

And so for the rest of the time, I quickly just want to give us three facts about the renewing of our mind.

If we want to have soul level change, if we want to be people who open our hands to say, God, my life is not my own, my soul is not my own to hold on to, but it is yours, and for me to lean into you, we have to be asking, How do we do that?

The answer is to renew your mind.

And so, three facts about the renewing of your mind.

The first one is this the renewing of your mind is a collective effort.

The renewing of your mind is a collective effort, it's not a work that you do on your own, but it's a work that is simultaneously sparked and maintained by you and the Holy Spirit.

Meaning, mind renewal happens through a dynamic interplay of God's Spirit working within you and your active cooperation with that work.

And so as you understand and believe the gospel, you begin to be motivated and enabled to present yourself as a living sacrifice, but only through mind renewal.

Meaning the renewal of your mind, not a passive act, but it requires your sharp and intentional engagement.

Think about it.

This is what's true with many other things in our lives.

I'm starting to have conversations with my five-year-old son right now.

His name is Isaiah, he's amazing.

If you come to Ambassador, you see him and his sisters running around acting absolute buckwild, okay?

But he's amazing.

And I'm starting to have conversations with him.

I'm like, hey man, like, what do you think you want to be when you grow up?

And he gives me all these different kinds of answers.

Uh, most recently, he said he wanted to be a pilot, and I'm just thinking, like, in my mind, Lord Jesus, would you say, like, no, Isaiah?

If anything that I know from now, being a pilot, I don't think so.

But I oblige, okay?

And here's what's going to be true about Isaiah.

If he wants to be a pilot, here's going to be true about you, with anything that you want to do, okay?

It takes a little bit more than for you to simply desire to be a pilot or say you are a pilot in order to be a pilot, okay?

Like, please never do this.

Is essential work.

Don't please don't do that.

Like, there's there's news of everybody everywhere, like pretending to be things.

Don't do that, that's dangerous.

But in order to be a pilot, it takes effort.

There's some things you have to learn and experiences you need to gain.

And if you want to present yourself as a pilot, then you have to do the things that cooperate with your desire to be a pilot.

Why?

So that you can be a pilot.

This is true for all professionals.

And if it's true for things like that, simple things like that in our lives, then how much more true is it for our walk with Jesus?

Listen, here's my concern in the room that there are way too many young people today who claim Christ, who are Christians by name only, who never take it seriously to cooperate with the Spirit in their lives in order for them to have a true, really renewed mind.

And they wonder why am I still the way that I am?

Why do I still desire the things I shouldn't desire?

Why is my soul still hungering and thirsting for unrighteousness?

Maybe that's you in the room, maybe that struck a chord with you.

The first thing I want to say to you is that you're in good company.

Like, welcome to the club.

Maybe you came in this room tonight and you're thinking, like, man, that sounds a lot like me.

I came in with these questions.

Why am I still this way?

Why am I still doing the things that I used to do?

I claim Jesus.

My life hasn't zapped up into the right yet.

Like all this kind of stuff.

Even Paul has some stuff to say about this, right?

He even talks about his own life and how difficult it is for him to do the things he knows he should do and what he continues to do, the things that he doesn't want to do.

Let me just be a comfort to you, really quick.

If that's your wrestle tonight, just know you're in good company.

That might be one of the sure signs that you can tell that you're even a Christian in this room.

If you're having the wrestle, if you're having the question, God, why?

Some of us come from backgrounds where we can't even ask the questions.

Some of us come from backgrounds where the wrestle meant like it ain't for real.

Some of you need to know the wrestle might be the thing that makes it the most real for you in your life.

Some of us need to know this.

Here's what's true: there are some battles that will be lifelong for you.

Can I be honest in the room, real quick?

Like there will be some things that you're struggling with today that you will struggle with until Jesus comes back or until you go home to him.

That's the faith.

But there are some things.

There are some things that you can actually overcome in this life.

Even some that you might think are impossible.

In a room this size, there's gotta be people who are struggling daily with things like lust, struggling daily with things like gossip, struggling with pornography and jealousy.

And you need to know that God is a God that has the powerful Holy Spirit that can even help you overcome things like that.

The things that you think are overcoming you and overruling you in your life.

Listen, this is the power of the Holy Spirit.

How many of you know He has not only saving power to save you for a time to come, but also an enabling power to help you live your life right now.

This is the power of the Holy Spirit.

But it happens by you cooperating with the work, submitting yourself to the Spirit in this collective effort between the two to renew your mind.

And so the renewing of your mind is a collective effort.

Secondly, we have to know the renewing of your mind is the only way to know the will of God.

Paul says renewing your mind so that you can know the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.

What is the will of God?

Many of us had that question in our lives.

Here's what we need to know.

Paul isn't talking about some hidden agenda or some blueprint for your personal life, he's talking about the revealed moral will of God.

He's talking about the thing that you really already know.

If you're in Christ, you've been walking with Jesus for a minute, maybe you're new, like whatever you can observe about the morality of Christ, like it's not a secret.

Paul's not trying to trip anybody up here.

He's saying, what you think you know about God, the goodness and the righteousness, this is what he's talking about.

It's the revealed moral will of God.

Micah 6.8 puts it this way: Do justice, love mercy, walk humbly.

The will of God.

John 6.40 puts it this way: believe, or aka trust and obey in the personal work of Jesus for your salvation.

That is the perfect good and pleasing will of God.

And here's what Paul's saying: he says, You learn it and you learn to live in it as your mind is being renewed as a collective effort between you and the Spirit of God.

Lastly, the renewing of your mind is the cost you pay to follow Christ.

Renewing your mind is the cost you pay to follow Christ.

Paul says elsewhere in 1 Corinthians 16, he says, You are not your own, but you are bought with the price.

And he's on good ground when he says this.

How many of you know?

Jesus also says, Hey, take up your cross and follow me.

If anybody wants eternal life, Jesus tells you, take up your cross and follow me.

Just a new way to repackage what we're saying tonight.

Renew your mind.

I love the gospel account, Luke chapter 9, 23 through 25.

Luke 9 · chapter mention

Jesus said to them all, if anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me.

For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me will save it.

He's saying it is worth it to lean in.

Not hold back for yourself.

For what does it benefit someone if he gains the whole world and yet loses or forfeits himself?

Another transformation say, or loses or forfeits his own soul.

What good is it to gain everything, to live the life you want to live, to get everything your way, and at the end of your life, you end up losing it all, you end up squandering everything.

Did you know that some things won't be able to make it into eternity with you?

And anything that's not of God will not pass.

And so the thing that we should do is be people who lean in with our lives, not hold back with our lives.

I love these texts, Romans 16, Luke 9.

Because both of them apply to the message, because they drive home this reality of the importance that because of Jesus, there is a way that we should live our lives now.

But it applies in this conversation by presenting your body's living sacrifice and renewing your mind.

Why?

Because when we fight against this truth, what we end up doing is actually calling Paul a liar.

We end up calling Jesus a liar and say, No, I actually haven't been bought with the price.

Following Jesus, what you did for me, Jesus, it's not worth me picking up my cross and walking after you.

It's not, it's not worth it.

What you're saying is Jesus' sacrifice has really done nothing for you.

I'm just gonna live however I want.

And hear me in the room: if you claim Jesus, nothing is further from the truth.

You have been bought with the price, you have been bought with Jesus' blood.

And so what this means is that you are no longer your own, you are his.

And now the right response is an answering sacrifice to now live your life following him.

And I love when the Bible gets real clear for us, okay?

And Paul not only tells us all this kind of stuff about what it means to live as a living sacrifice, be transformed by the renewing of your mind, but he also gives a snapshot of what this begins to look like in our lives and a few verses down, even in our text right there.

If you're back in Romans 12, look at verse 9.

Here's what he says.

I'm gonna read this in in total, verse 9 through 14.

And here's what Paul says it will begin to look like when you begin to have a renewed mind.

Listen to this.

It says, Let love be without hypocrisy.

Detest evil, cling to what is good, love one another deeply as brothers and sisters, take the lead in honoring one another, do not lack diligence and zeal, and be fervent in the spirit.

Serve the Lord, rejoice in hope, be patient in affliction, be persistent in prayer, and share with the saints in their needs.

Pursue hospitality, bless those who persecute you, bless them, do not curse, rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep, live in harmony with one another, do not be proud, and instead associate with the humble.

Do not be wise in your own estimation, do not repay anyone evil for evil, and give careful thought to do what is honorable in everyone's eyes.

If possible, hear this as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

Friends, do not avenge yourselves.

Instead, leave room for God's wrath, because it is written, Vengeance belongs to me, I will repay, says the Lord.

This is just a list of Christian ethics the rest of the book of Romans is about what this looks like laid out practically, but this is the list.

If you want to know what it is, what it means to live as a living sacrifice and to have your mind renewed on what you're gonna be being transformed into, look no further than Romans 12, 9 through 19.

This is God's desire and will for you to be transformed into this.

That when you become a person who doesn't hold back your soul from him, but you lean in, offering yourself as a living sacrifice, he says, Hey, this is the kind of people that I'm after.

These are the kind of people that start to get created.

And here's what's true for honest.

There's many things on this list that we look at, and they're not true in our lives.

Me included.

I look at the word hypocrisy on here, and I'm like, man, that can be me.

Honoring one another, I'd rather honor myself.

Patience and affliction, I don't want to feel pain.

I don't want to feel struggle, I don't want to feel discomfort, I don't want to feel affliction, I want to get rid of those things as quickly as possible.

I'm looking for the first door out every single time.

Live in harmony with one another.

Do you know what people have done to me in my life?

And I know each of us have had stories of what others have done to you in your life.

Live at harmony, God.

Don't avenge yourself.

I want to be so defensive.

I want to be able to fight for my own self.

I don't think I need the Lord to fight my battles.

Many of these things cannot be true of me.

In my flesh, I don't desire to live as a living sacrifice for God.

I don't desire to have my mind renewed.

And if I'm a betting man, I would argue that that is so true for you in the room as well.

It's difficult to live according to the Spirit in such a way where your mind is willingly and intentionally being renewed.

But here's what I want you to know tonight that it is absolutely worth it.

If you're a non-believer and you're considering, after all I've said, maybe you've heard these words sacrifices and all this kind of stuff, and renewing your mind, and you're thinking like there's nothing wrong with my mind, I'm fine, I'm not sacrificing for nothing, I'm good.

Let me just tell you something.

You're sacrificing for something, something else has a hold of your mind.

And what I'm here to tell you is that there's nothing better than to have that place in your life than Jesus Christ.

Because the thing that He will lead you to is something that can last far beyond this lifetime right here.

Don't be so short-sighted.

Don't look at this life as if this is all there is.

There's more than this.

There's more.

And as the pastor of Ambassador Church, as a lover of salt company, my charge to you is to say, it is worth it.

Doubling down on your life to live a life pleasing to God as a living sacrifice, allowing him and the Holy Spirit to work in your life, partnering with them to renew your mind.

It is worth it.

And if for no other reason I want you to hear this one, it's because Christ paid the cost for it to be so.

Don't you know we don't deserve this?

Don't you know you don't deserve the right to be partnering with the holy and high God?

He should just leave us alone.

I love what it says in the Psalms.

Mike, like, who is what is man that he is mindful of us?

What is man that he's mindful of us?

Have you asked that?

Ever asked that question?

For what reason would God ever need to consider you?

For what reason would God need to ever consider me?

This is the humble place that we need to get to in order to receive Christ and come to this place of this understanding of what he's done.

And those of you who know Christ, we can forget.

And here's my charge: remember.

Wake up, sleepy Christian, and remember what God has done for you.

Why?

So that you can see and count the cost to say it is worth it, it is worth it to live my life as a living sacrifice, trusting in Him to renew my mind.

And when this truth sinks in to the depths of our hearts, it should produce in us a new vitality for life, a renewed mind.

Like some of us think that Christianity subdues us, some of us think that this is a boring faith.

It is not.

You want to know what happens when you give your life to Christ and you submit to the good and right King that He is, and He begins to work in your life, you actually get life to the full.

There is full life in Jesus Christ.

I want you to know this.

And you only get it when you don't hold back, but you lean into your walk with Christ.

Here's the key takeaway for this morning: your spiritual journey is maximized when you not hold back, but when you lean into your walk with Christ.

So, really quick, three ways how you can be a person who leans in.

One, would we be a people, men and women, who grow in being Bible people?

Would you read the word of God?

You want to know the best way for you to begin to have a renewed mind?

Get your mind in the word of God.

Carve out time in your day.

I don't know what you have to do.

Set your alarm, identify a place, get you a Bible reading plan.

If you have those mics in the back, I don't know.

Maybe we should start getting those for solid.

Yeah, get a Bible reading plan.

And start there and begin to have your mind become renewed by the things of God.

Be men and women of prayer.

Tap into the connection that you have with the Holy God.

Do you know the privilege that you have in prayer?

Who is man that God is mindful of us, and yet he says, I want nothing more than a commune with you.

Would you commune with me?

You have an open invitation to talk to the Holy One of God.

You want your mind renewed?

Connect in prayer.

Gospel community.

Prioritize being with God's people.

Unashamed far retreat push.

We've carved out time for you to get with gospel community.

Don't say no to the opportunity.

That could be the catalyst for you to begin living your life as a living sacrifice for the God who paid the ultimate price for you.

You can become to be someone who's renewing in your mind.

Because you spent time on the Word of God, you began to connect with God in prayer, and you decided to prioritize being with God's people in gospel community.

Don't let the time pass.

Lean in.

So here's my charge saw.

We people who lean in, don't lean out.

Your life as a living sacrifice, partnering with God to renew your mind.

Would you pray with me that this be true of us?

Father, we love you, and we're grateful for you tonight, and we're thankful for your word.

It's comforting and convicting nature.

And God, I just want to confess, and maybe some people can confess in the room on their own, that oftentimes my mind wants to straw stray far, far, far away from you.

That I am tempted to not want to live my life for you.

I'm tempted to not let you in and renew my mind.

I want to renew my own mind.

I want to make the excuse and think that my mind is fine.

I don't want to look at the way my life is lived and say, God, would you help me live it better?

No, I desire my own comfort.

And God, I'm confessing that to you because I want you and your Holy Spirit work to do a work in me to help me, help me, help me live a life pleasing to you.

And would you help renew my mind?

And would you do the same for this room?

Father, we love you.

We're grateful in Jesus' name.

We pray.

Amen.